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Hockey

Dineen salute before Knights tilt 2 p.m.

The North Bay Battalion will salute former Trooper Cam Dineen before today's tilt against the visiting London Knights. Game time is 2 p.m.

A fan favourite, Dineen was traded to the Sarnia Sting Saturday for Braden Henderson, another left-shot offensively-minded blueliner, plus a host of picks.

It's the second big trade for the Troops prior to the OHL swap deadline at noon Wednesday as the Battalion attempt to capitalize on veteran value to build for the future while still staying competitive enough to make this year's playoffs.

Overage forward Brett McKenzie was shipped out to the Owen Sound Attack Wednesday for picks and centre Matthew Struthers, who scored the game-winner over the Hamilton Bulldogs Friday.

Dineen, who signed an NHL entry-level contract with the Arizona Coyotes, wasn't expected to return next year. The Battalion are battling for the last playoff spot in the Eastern Conference and will be underdogs in every round if they make the post-season.

Henderson, who is expected to suit up today, comes with at least five, possibly seven, picks

Henderson, 17, is a five-foot-nine, 168-pound left shot from Baxter, Ont., a community in the Township of Essa, 10 kilometres southwest of Barrie. In 19 games this season he has five assists and six penalty minutes.

Henderson was a sixth-round pick, 117th overall, by Sarnia in 2016 from the Barrie Jr. Colts minor midgets. He played six games with the Sting last season without earning a point or receiving a penalty but had 39 points in as many games with the Chatham Maroons of the Greater Ontario Junior Hockey League’s Western Conference.

North Bay also received second-round picks in the 2019 and 2021 OHL Priority Selections, fourth-rounders in 2019 and 2020 and a sixth-rounder in 2022. The Battalion got two conditional selections, a third-rounder in 2024 and a second-rounder in 2025. All the picks are Sarnia’s own except the 2019 second-rounder, which originally belonged to the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds, and the 2019 fourth-rounder, which was that of the Flint Firebirds.

“He’s a skilled defenceman who was a point-a-game player in junior B last year,” Stan Butler, Battalion director of hockey operations and head coach, said of Henderson. “We hope, with the way the game is going with puck-moving defencemen, that he can fit into that role here.”

Dineen, a 19-year-old resident of Toms River, N.J., was an 11th-round pick by the Battalion in 2014. He has 11 goals and 25 assists for 36 points with 10 penalty minutes in 39 games this season.

In 136 games over two-plus campaigns, Dineen, five-foot-11 and 185 pounds, has scored 30 goals and added 79 assists for 109 points with 36 PiM. In 11 playoff games in 2016, he recorded eight assists without a penalty.

Selected by the Troops from the New Jersey Rockets under-19 team, Dineen became a third-round choice, 68th overall, of the Arizona Coyotes in the 2016 National Hockey League Draft and signed a three-year entry level contract last May 1.

He was second in scoring among OHL rearguards in his rookie season of 2015-16, netting 13 goals and adding 46 assists for 59 points in 68 games. He was named to the first all-rookie team and tied Mikhail Sergachev of the Windsor Spitfires for second place in rookie-of-the-year voting behind winger Alexander Nylander of the Mississauga Steelheads.

Dineen was limited to 29 games last season after suffering a knee injury on Dec. 9, 2016, in a 5-2 loss to the host Oshawa Generals, requiring surgery in Arizona and missing the rest of the schedule. He had six goals and eight assists for 14 points with eight PiM in the truncated season.

“Cam was a fixture here,” said Butler. “He’s a high-quality young man, as high as any we’ve ever had in our organization. He’s an exceptional player, and it was no easy decision to move him. We were fortunate to have him in our program, and we wish him nothing but success in all his future endeavours on and off the ice.”

Struthers, 18, came with a 14th-round pick this year and a second-rounder in 2020.

The Battalion, which missed the playoffs for the third time in the franchise’s 19-year history last season, has a won-lost-extended record of 14-19-6 for 34 points, fourth in the Central Division and ninth in the Eastern Conference.